The Demons Within
by JP80
Summary: The Titans seem to have turned on Beast Boy, and he has no idea why. Will he be able to figure out why, or will it be too late?
1. Prologue

This is my first work. It is to be considered the first episode of Season 6, directly following Trouble in Tokyo

Reviews are welcome.

Prologue

Titans Tower never looked so good. The repairs on it were still underway after the attack before the Titans went on their "vacation", but it still was a sweet sight to see.

Robin keyed in the access codes to the Tower, watching the doors open with a bit of satisfaction and relief. They were home.

"It is so wonderful to be at our home again!" Starfire beamed, spinning around, taking in the sight of the entrance hallway.

Robin could only smile. Seeing Starfire so happy always made him feel warm. Especially after their trip to Tokyo.

Cyborg put both hands on Robin's shoulders, bringing him out of his revery. "Well, the place looks like it's still in one piece. Guess they were able to handle things without us."

"Speaking of which," Robin said. "Where are they? I wasn't expecting a parade, but I thought at least one of them would be down here."

Cyborg tapped the sensor on his arm "According to this, they're all in the operations room."

Curious about their lack of a reception, the three Titans took the elevator to the operations room. Why wasn't anyone contacting them?

They soon got their answer.

As soon as they stepped out, they were bombarded with a thunderous "Surprise!" from the Titans who were keeping the place warm for them.

Aqualad, Speedy, Kid Flash, and Jinx were all smiling broadly at the three original members. The only one not taking part in the welcome was Argent, who looked ruefully at the "Welcome Home" banner the rest had hung up for them.

Their "substitutes" were no slouches, though they weren't very familiar with the city. Aqualad, wearing his usual black and blue wetsuit, seemed far more at home in the water than he did in either of the TItans Towers.

Speedy wore his red tunic, wearing the yellow strap for his bows, as if he were about to go into battle. As absurd as that looked, Robin could certainly understand it.

Robin could only imagine what it had to have been like to deal with Kid Flash for the time they were gone. Even while they were all talking, he just seemed like a red and yellow blur.

He quickly noted just how they were able to deal with it. Every time he got too restless, he'd get a strong scolding of sorts from Jinx, which he genuinely seemed to enjoy.

She was a real enigma to Robin. Jinx had been a member of the H.I.V.E., and then the Hive Five, but somehow Kid Flash helped convince her to turn her back on them, and she was one of the newest members of the Titans.

Robin had come to dread seeing that pink-haired sorceress, but now, she was a powerful ally. Still, she was amusing to watch, no matter what side she was on. Something a of a cross between a goth and Pippy Longstocking.

Argent filled out the ranks, sitting in a corner, being greeted by Starfire of all people. The two had an off friendship, having been forged by Starfire's recruitment of her.

She seemed like a more outgoing version of Raven, a goth with and amusingly cute victorian style dress, along with black and magenta streaked hair. Her accent, which sounded British, told some about her, but she wasn't telling anything else.

Aqualad was the first to approach them. "Welcome home," he said, eyeing the team. "Did they not let the rest of your team back?"

Robin laughed. "Of course they did. Beast Boy's monitoring the Brotherhood of Evil, and Raven's visiting the Junior Titans."

Robin heard Argent laugh softly from the kitchen table. "Didn't take her for the mother type," she said dryly.

Robin then immediately heard a muffled scream as Starfire rushed over, giving Argent a fierce, and not totally welcome hug.

"She's not really," Cyborg said. "But she does love those kids."

"Wait a minute," Jinx said, obviously confused. "Why is Beast Boy keeping an eye on the Brotherhood? Didn't we pretty much put them all in prison?"

"We did," Robin said. "But that doesn't mean we don't have to worry about them anymore. It's just a routine assignment. We do it once a month."

"Plus, BB wanted to use it to extend his vacation," Cyborg said, leaning in toward her conspiratorially.

"There's nothing wrong with that," Kid Flash said. "What guy wouldn't like to take an extra few days to scope the scene, see the sights, see the ladies-"

Jinx interrupted him with a swift elbow to the ribs. "Do I have to put a leash on you?"

"Don't tease me like that."

"Well, if you don't mind," Cyborg said, rubbing the flesh on the right side of his face. "I'd like to get off my feet for a while."

Robin nodded. "Sure, Cyborg."

He started to follow him to the couch when Aqualad took him aside. "Before you join him, there was a message sent specifically for you."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Who sent it?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. It was encrypted, responding only to your personal access codes."

That was odd. There weren't that many people outside of the Titans who would or even could send a message like that. But Robin had an idea of who could.

"Do you know where it was sent from?"

Aqualad nodded. "We do know that."

"And?"

"It was from Gotham City."


	2. Chapter 1

Beast Boy could not have been happier to be back home. The other Titans had the opportunity to go home before he did, so they got to get the first taste of home.

As much as he wanted to keep his vacation going, he lamented the fact that he couldn't enjoy that taste.

Beast Boy walked up the the front entrance to the Tower, and keyed in his access code, awaiting the whoosh of the door admitting him. To his surprise, four words gave him an unsettling message.

CODE INVALID ACCESS DENIED.

"What?" he asked himself. That didn't make sense. He was only gone a little longer than the rest of the team. Did it not allow them either?

Beast Boy pressed the external intercom. "Uh, guys? Are you in there?"

He stared silently at the display, as if it would have all the answers for him. After a long moment, he heard it activate. "Beast Boy? Is that you?" he heard Robin say.

"Yes, it's me!" he said with more than a little annoyance. "Why won't the Tower let me in?"

"Just a minute. I'll be down there."

After waiting what felt like an eternity, Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire all greeted him as the doors finally let him in.

"Welcome back, Beast Boy," Robin said, clearly a little uneasy about the awkwardness of his arrival. "You're back a little earlier than I expected."

"Dude!" he said. "What was that all about?"

Cyborg looked a little embarrassed. "Yeah. Sorry man. That was my fault. I had to install a new security system, since we'd been away for so long."

"You coulda told me that you were gonna do that."

Cyborg raised his arms disarmingly. "Hey. I'm sorry."

"Why don't we just go upstairs?" Robin said, trying to play mediator.

The second Beast Boy got off the elevator to the operations room, he couldn't help but look at the gamestation with a longing as though he were a man in the desert eyeing an oasis.

"All right!" he said, looking back at Cyborg. "Dude, I challenge you to a race."

Robin put a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder before Cyborg could respond. "Wait a minute. Before we get comfortable, why don't you tell me about what you saw at the prison." He smiled. "After all, that's why you went there, isn't it?"

Beast Boy thought his report on the Brotherhood of Evil would last only a few minutes. After all, there was nothing to tell. They were all still behind bars. Aside from the physician at the prison testing me for anything the Brotherhood might have somehow placed on him without his knowledge, a procedure that seemed fairly routine, nothing happened.

So why did Robin keep asking him about it for two hours? That didn't make any sense. He didn't have anything to say. At least nothing important.

"So, he said, sitting on the couch, looking at the window monitor impatiently. "Am I done now? I don't really have anything else useful that I can tell you." He looked at Robin, then Starfire, and finally Cyborg. All of them seemed to look at him the way they would a suspect. "Nothing happened," he said.

"Look, we just want to be sure we have all the details, that's all. As soon as we take a look at you in the medical bay, we're done."

"Aww, man!" he groaned. "You gotta be kidding me! How long is that gonna take?"

* * *

Beast Boy thought his report on the Brotherhood was way too long. His physical was even longer.

Cyborg strapped him down, giving him ever single test he possibly could, taking blood samples, and testing him for infections.

He was so tempted to morph into a rat and just scurry away, but he knew there had to be a reason for this.

"Come ON, Cy. Please tell me this is almost over."

"It is," he reassured him. "I just want to make sure the Brotherhood didn't slip a biological agent on you when you were there."

"You gotta be kidding me!" he yelped. "You know I never get sick."

"Yeah, but you never know what kind of thing they could give you."

"Seriously, we've been here for at least four hours."

"Actually," Cyborg said Reluctantly. "It's been six and a half. While we were processing some of the data you fell asleep."

"What?" he yelled. "I've lost the whole day!"

Cyborg began to loosen all the straps holding Beast Boy down. "All right. I think we're done here."

* * *

After Beast Boy went off to play video games, Cyborg went to Robin's room to inform him of Beast Boy's test results.

"So," Robin asked. "What did you find out?"

Cyborg looked down, reluctant to reveal the truth. "Exactly what we expected to."

Robin sighed. "So it's true then?"

"It's true."

Robin hesitated. "All right. Proceed as we've prepared to. There's no telling what to expect."

Cyborg felt as though his gut had just turned to metal like so much of him already had. But, he knew he had no choice. "All right. Does Raven know?"

"No, but I'll fill her in as soon as she comes back tomorrow."

"Did...this really happen?" Cyborg asked.

"It did. Keep an eye on him."

* * *

Beast Boy didn't have much luck playing his games. Some how he found himself locked out of his own saves on all his games. Every sports, racing, fight, and RPGs had locks on all the saved games. He didn't even know how that could happen.

Without anyone to ask about this, he decided it was time to go to bed. He may have gotten some sleep during the tests, be it sure wasn't rest.

He got one more unpleasant surprise when he got to his room. His own door wouldn't accept his access codes. What was up with that? Sure, Cyborg told him that he had changed their codes for security reasons, but this just didn't make sense. If Beast Boy couldn't get into Titans Tower, then how could anyone get into any room, let alone his?

At first, he thought he might've just keyed it in wrong. He typed again. Nothing. He tried a third time. Still nothing. So he tried a fourth. Then a fifth. Sixth. Seventh.

After trying what had to be at least fifteen or twenty times, Beast Boy yelled. "Come on!" punching the panel as hard as he could, as if that would have made a difference. He didn't even leave a scratch on the wall.

Not knowing what else to do, he went to Robin's room and knocked on the door as hard as he could.

No answer.

He called out to him. "Robin? Are you in there?"

He put his ear to the door, hoping his enhanced hearing might tell him something. It didn't.

Angrily, he pounded the door even harder. "Come on! Please be in there! I need to know what's going on!"

His only answer was silence.

He thought about trying Cyborg's room, but he knew better than to try that. It would take a lot to wake him out of his sleep cycle.

There was only one other person he could talk to. He immediately went to Starfire's room.

He tried knocking a little more lightly this time. Who knew, maybe the others were ignoring him. Starfire wasn't the type to do that, though.

After the third knock, a very tired Starfire opened her door, leaving a very narrow crack through which she could see Beast Boy.

"Beast Boy?" she said in a slurred, drowsy manner.

"Hey."

She paused a long moment. Apparently, she still wasn't quite awake yet. "Is something the matter?"

"You could say that. I can't get in my room. And nobody's answering me."

"No one?" Star asked with genuine concern.

"What's wrong?" Beast Boy said, finally saying what he'd wanted to all day.

Starfire took a step back into the room, as if he had said something incredibly offensive. "I am sorry, Beast Boy. But I cannot talk right now."

"But weren't we just-"

"I am very sorry," she said, shutting the door.

That clinched it. Now he knew. Something was going on. Something bad. He know Starfire, and this, whoever it was, it wasn't his Starfire.

* * *

Raven hadn't planned on returning to Titans Tower until the morning, but, as was far too often the case, duty called her into action.

At about 11:30 PM, she received an alert on her Titans communicator from the police that there was a bank robbery in progress. Considering that thirty minutes till midnight was hardly a prime bank robbing time, as if there ever truly were one, it was assumed that the person responsible was someone the Teen Titans would be familiar with.

Raven could sense where the culprit was, but she still had no idea who it was. The report was vague, and for some bizarre reason, no one at Titans Tower had contacted her. She would have to deal with that as soon as she dealt with this.

Once she got within a hundred feet of, well, whoever it was, she heard two words that told her exactly who this "whoever" was.

"Mumbo Jumbo!"

The Amazing Mumbo, she thought. Great.

She would need backup, and very soon.

* * *

Beast Boy was at his wits end. What in the world was going on? He could understand that Robin and Cyborg might take some draconian measures to increase security at Titans Tower, given recent events.

He could even understand them giving everyone new access codes to the Tower, in an effort to prevent intruders.

But to Beast Boy's room? His game saves? That didn't make sense. Not one bit. They were acting like he was the enemy, or at least someone they didn't think they could trust.

This had happened to Beast Boy one before, when he unleashed the Beast to protect Raven from a savage attack from Adonis. He'd actually saved her from Adonis, but circumstances made it look like he'd nearly killed her. Robin had even threatened to throw Beast Boy in jail.

He didn't think that Robin would actually go through with that threat, at least not in retrospect, given the fact that Robin twice became a rouge himself, as Red X, and as Slade's apprentice.

But the threat seemed very real at the time, and it terrified Beast Boy that a friend would resort even to that threat.

This situation reminded him very much of that day. It wasn't a dire situation, and no one's life was in danger. Still, Beast Boy couldn't help but feel as though he were being treated as though Robin was running a sting operation on him.

But why?

Before Beast Boy could ponder anymore on that question, his TItans communicator activated. He expected the alarm in the Tower to activate as well, but it didn't. That was strange.

He opened up his communicator, looking at the screen to see who'd contacted him. "Titans Tower. What's going on?"

He was surprised and somewhat pleased to see Raven's face on the screen. He always was happy to see her pretty face, but this time he could see a lot of concern on that face. "I could ask the same question. Why isn't anyone else answering?"

"What?' Beast Boy said, a little surprised, and a lot outraged. "No one else answered? What's going on?"

"Trouble," she said, repeating the line that Robin used so frequently.

"Who is it?" Please just let it be a robbery, he thought, knowing full well that he was slaying the dragon with a thought.

"It's Mumbo. He's gone on a midnight crime spree."

"Mumbo?" Beast Boy said in a mixture of derision and dread. "You gotta be kidding me?"

Raven's face hardened. "This is no joke. If it's just the two of us, he's a serious threat."

"I'll be right there," he said.

"No," she said. "You can't do this alone. The two of us can't do this. You need to do whatever it takes to get them here." She looked at Beast Boy, boring into him with those piercing violet eyes. "We have to stop him. I need you, Beast Boy."

Before he could respond, something happened that he couldn't see, and the transmission was disrupted. Her communicator was still active, but she couldn't talk anymore.

Raven was in trouble. Those last five words she spoke to him made all the concerns he'd had all day seem insignificant. Whatever was wrong with the team didn't matter. He had to help Raven.

But he couldn't depend on friends who didn't act like he was a friend anymore. He didn't know who he could trust anymore.

Actually, that was no longer true. There was only one person he truly knew he could trust. And she was in grave danger. She needed his help, and his friends couldn't be counted on to help. Beast Boy did the only thing he knew to do. He went downstairs to the exit.

He went to help Raven.


	3. Chapter 2

Mumbo had to be the most annoying person Raven ever fought. As slippery as an eel soaked in motor oil, he always seemed to have an escape route planned. Even with the Teen Titans fully assembled, he was difficult to take in.

And that was when they were all there.

Raven was alone, and she was the only one in Mumbo's way. The last time she'd faced him, he'd managed to turn her into a bunny, a fate that was nearly worse than death. She could only imagine what worse fate he could try to give her this time. Gingham dress maybe? Tutu? A night at the improv with Beast Boy?

Speaking of Beast Boy, where was he? No one else at Titans Tower was responding to her calls, which didn't make a whole lot of sense. It really didn't make sense that he didn't know why. Something was wrong here, and she needed to find out.

Not that she would, if she didn't catch this moron first. This was the third time Raven had Mumbo trapped by a brick wall, only to have him open it up, and walk right through it.

Who did he think he was, Hagrid?

Raven had to fly past two more city blocks, but she finally found him, apparently convinced that he'd escaped her for the last time. With a great "Mumbo Jumbo!" he sent thousands of dollars pouring out into ridiculously large bags that were actually labeled with $ signs on them.

With him seemingly distracted, Raven landed about ten feet away, ready to end this. "Azarath Metrion-"

Mumbo immediately turned to face a nearby fire hydrant. "You look like you could use a drink," he said, shooting the side of it, sending a blast of high-pressure water her way. She went flying about twenty feet.

When she looked up, she saw his blue face smirking at her. He was right in front of her.

* * *

Tracking Raven with his communicator, Beast Boy finally got within a block of her, flying in the form of an eagle. With his animal eyesight, he could tell that he was none too soon. She looked like Mumbo had gotten the upper hand on her.

Beast Boy knew what happened that last time he tangled with Raven, and he wasn't going to let that happen again.

Like an air combat pilot, he did a loop-de-loop, adding his momentum towards the earth, morphing into a peregrine falcon, the fastest animal on the earth.

Flying with an airspeed in excess of 150 miles per hour, he swooped down, with his talons keyed in on Mumbo's magic wand, which was now pointed at Raven.

* * *

Raven looked around, trying to see or sense if there were anything, anything, she could use as a weapon against Mumbo. But the street was empty, and there weren't any street signs near enough to throw at him. It didn't look good.

Smiling a toothy grin with his smurf-looking blue face, Mumbo pointed his wand at her. "At least I can make one Titan disappear. Mumbo Jumb-"

Before he could finish his "spell", a green falcon came swooping in at blinding speed, pulling his wand out of his hand. It turned back around, landed, and morphed back into Beast Boy, holding Mumbo's wand, with a very angry scowl on his face. She'd rarely ever seen him fight like this.

Noticing that Mumbo had just realized that his wand wasn't in his hand anymore, he said, "Looking for this?"

"How did you-"

Before Mumbo could finish, Beast Boy broke it over his right knee, forcing all the money Mumbo had stolen over the evening to fly back out onto the street. His magician tuxedo vanished, reverting into the outfit of an office account, and his skin returned to a normal pigment. He looked pathetic.

Beast Boy looked at Raven, who had already surrounded their now-helpless enemy in a ball of black energy. "Are you all right?" he asked, with a lot concern in his voice and face."

"Sure," she said. She looked back at Mumbo, and then realized just how dire the situation had become. "Well, I am now. Thanks."

"Don't mention it," he said, rubbing the back of his neck the way he always did when a girl said something he liked. "So, how were the munchkins?"

"Loud," she said, trying to sidestep the question. "Okay, what's going on?"

"Well," Raven said, looking at Mumbo being suspended in the air, and the piles of money laying in the streets. "The police aren't here yet. I'd say we have plenty of time. Why don't we start from the beginning."

It took twenty minutes for the police to arrive and take Mumbo away. In that time, Beast Boy told Raven everything that had happened in during his first day back at the tower. Once the police thanked them and left, there was a long silence between them as they started walking in the direction of the Tower, leaving him to wonder if Raven truly believed him.

She stood there, her face concealed in her cloak, staring at him. Beast Boy had always thought it was endearing the way she did that. After all, if she didn't have that cloak over her face, they'd see how cute she was, and that wouldn't make for a good intimidation factor.

And, of course, without the cloak, she was just wearing a swimsuit with sleeves. That wasn't very intimidating either.

As much as he tended to fight with her, Beast Boy had come to trust her as he did no one else. He wasn't sure exactly why, but he didn't really care either. If there was one thing he'd learned in life, it was that truly good friends who understand you are hard to find, and they should never, ever be taken for granted.

Especially, when all your other friends have alienated you.

It had felt like an eternity since either of them had spoken, and that made him even more nervous. If he couldn't trust Raven, then who could he trust?

Beast Boy couldn't wait anymore. He had to say something. "So, do you think I'm crazy?"

He felt his heart race. What if she did? What if she thought he'd gone off the deep end? He knew she'd always thought he was stupid. God knows she'd reminded him enough of that fact.

"No," she said flatly. "No, I don't think you're crazy. They didn't answer my communicator. They've never done that before."

"Yes!" he said, hugging Raven as tightly as he could.

"Beast Boy," she said irritably. "You hugging me."

"Heh, sorry," he said, letting her go. So," he said, trying to think out loud. "What do you think it is? Mind control? Possession? Clones?"

Raven pulled her cloak down and raised an eyebrow. "Clones. You think the tower was infested with clones of the Titans in the time it took for you to pay a visit to the Brotherhood?"

"We've dealt with worse," he shrugged.

"Yes, we have. But think about it for a second. Why would they make clones of Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg, and then have them treat the two of us like that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, don't you think they'd try to fool us into thinking that they're the real deal?"

"Oh, I hadn't thought about it that way," he said, rubbing the back of his neck." But why would they do that? When have I ever done anything to make them not trust me? It's not like I worked for Slade, or nearly defected to the H.I.V.E."

"Or recited a spell that ignited the end of the world," Raven said, looking down, clearly ashamed of that memory.

Beast Boy put a hand on her shoulder. "Why do you think of it that way? We don't."

"Maybe not. But it does prove that everyone makes mistakes, or bad choices."

"Yeah," he said. "Like the time I nearly shut down Cyborg, and the time I threatened you."

Raven narrowed her eyes in a teasing manner. "Just so you know, those aren't equal offenses. Especially since you saved my life in one of them."

He rubbed the back of his neck again. "Yeah, well, I always wanted to do that."

"Do what?"

"Save your butt."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Why?'

"I dunno. Maybe 'cause you always look out for everyone else so much. It makes me want to return the favor. Plus, it's kind of fun to think of you needing help every once in a while."

"Everyone needs help once in a while."

"Yeah," Beast Boy said. "But you try to hide it so much. It's kind of funny, really."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny about that?"

"Well, it's funny because it's so not like you to do that. Just like it is to see you scared. Or laugh. It reminds me of when I was in, well, whatever was in that funky magic mirror of yours."

"My soul-self," Raven said.

"Your what-what?" Beast Boy asked, not quite grasping what she'd said.

"My soul-self. It's my true being. My soul. Everything about me that isn't physical."

"Anyway, when I was there, I was sides of you that I didn't know existed."

"Did you?" Raven asked, narrowing her eyes in a warning that Beast Boy might just want to tread a little lightly.

"Yeah. There was that one with a green cloak. Man, she kicked butt. She was totally aewsome. The one with the grey cloak. She was afraid that I didn't like her . And the pink one, she..."

"She what?" she asked, narrowing her eyes even a little further.

Beast Boy hesitated. Did he really want to tell her this? And why did he want to now? Well, he was probably too far in at this point not to tell her. "She was, well, she was pretty cute."

Raven's eyes widened, and Beast Boy thought he saw her blush just a little. She drew back a bit. "What?"

_Oh, crap,_ he thought. _I definitely shouldn't have done that._ "Well, yeah. She laughed at my jokes. I thought that was awesome. I loved hearing you laugh. Sometimes, I kinda wish I got to hear you laugh."

"Tell better jokes next time," she deadpanned.

"But I gotta tell you," he said, not sure how she would take this. "Your laugh doesn't hold a candle to your smile."

Raven stopped in her tracks. "W-what?" she said, trying to act as though she was taking the compliment in stride.

"You hide it too much."

"Okay," she said. "Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"Why are you saying these things?"

Beast Boy didn't know quite what to say to that. He heard a soft roll of thunder in the distance. Sure hope that's not an omen, he thought. "I...don't know," he said, looking at his feet. "Maybe it's everything that's happened today." He looked her in the eyes. "Or, maybe it's because I just wanted to say them." Once again, he didn't know if he'd gone too far. "I'll stop if it's bothering you."

Raven eyed him for a long moment, as if she weren't sure what to say. That was weird. He was the one saying all the weird things to her that he knew he'd probably regret in the morning, so what could be so hard for her to say?

"I didn't say that," she said.

Beast Boy felt like letting out a bit of a sigh of relief, but that would just be weird, and he was being weird enough for himself. He didn't want to freak her out, if he hadn't already done that by now. Another thunderclap, this time much closer, caught him a little off guard. In a second or two, he felt rain drops, as a steady drizzle began to fall on the both of them.

"Aww, man," he said. "And here I am without an umbrella."

Raven pulled her cloak over her head. Soon Beast Boy notice that there wasn't any more rain falling on him. He looked up, and saw that she was shielding the both of them from the rain with her soul-self.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it," she said.

"You think you could turn it to snow?"

"Don't push your luck."

The two were silent for a minute or two as they crossed a street. For once, Beast Boy was fine with that. He didn't feel the need to fill the silence. Finally, Raven broke it. "So, something's been bugging me for a while. I just have to ask."

"What's that?" Beast Boy asked, laughing nervously.

"Garfield?"

* * *

Jinx and Argent watched Beast Boy and Raven walk the streets, crouched on the rooftop of a nearby building. Jinx didn't like the idea of hiding. Hiding was the kind of thing she'd do when she was trying to join the Brotherhood of Evil. She had turned on the Brotherhood at the last moment, turning the tide in the favor of the Teen Titans, who'd since embraced her.

Things seemed so much simpler that way.

Now here she stood, with another Titans who also helped save the day, spying on Beast Boy, another Titan. How did they get to this point?

Jinx looked down at the two down below. "They seem awfully happy."

"They still don't know," Argent said.

"Lucky them."

"Not as easy as you thought?"

Jinx looked up at Argent. "What?"

"Being a hero."

She looked down. "I've never felt very heroic." She looked down at the street. "Especially not now."

"It's not his fault, you know."

She nodded. "I know. That's what makes this tougher."

"They do look happy," Argent said.

"They deserve better. He deserves better."

"He does."

"How long does he have?" Jinx asked, tending to the elephant in the room.

"A day. Maybe two."

"A lot can happen in a day."

They were silent for a long minute, death having taken over what had passed for small talk. Beast Boy led Raven into an all night diner.

"Well," Jinx said, looking at Argent. "I don't suppose it would hurt to let them have a romantic dinner."

Argent smiled. "No, I don't suppose it would."

"You don't suppose what would hurt?" a voice said from behind. They both turned around to see Robin.


	4. Chapter 3

The prison was quiet. Deathly quiet. Kid Flash had intended to sneak into the high security facility, but he soon found out that would be far less of a challenge than expected.

He wasn't sure exactly what happened, but he could tell something was amiss.

Moving at speeds too fast for surveillance cameras to see, and way too fast for any guards to know what was going on, he made several passes around the most accessible route to enter the cryogenic cells used specifically for the most dangerous criminals, most notably the Brotherhood of Evil.

No matter how fast he went, though, Kid Flash couldn't outrun the smell of the prison. The whole place had the sour stench of sweat about it, as if it were a run-down gym that hadn't been well tended to in months. He knew he'd have to take a longer shower when he got back to the Tower. At least four seconds. Maybe even five, though that just felt like a waste of water to him.

It took longer than he would've liked to get through to the entrance to the cryogenic chamber, mostly because of the poor light. Prisons rarely were well lit at the midnight hour, but this seemed unnaturally dark, even for a prison. Most of the lights were off, and many of those still on flickered off intermittently.

Kid Flash knew better than to try running around a poorly lit room too much at ultrasonic speeds. He could only imagine how long it would take for them to get the blood off the walls.

Still, he was finally able to find the door. Not that he knew what he'd find there. Robin's instructions were insufferably vague, even for him. Kid Flash and Speedy were to go back to the prison holding the Brotherhood of Evil and see if "anything happened".

Well, that sure narrowed it down.

Secure in his confidence that he hadn't been tracked through the building, Kid Flash activated his Titans communicator.

"Speedy? You there?"

"I'm here, hot shot. Did you find it?"

"Sure did. Were you able to track me?"

"Yes, I was," Speedy said impatiently. "Just like I could the last three times you hit a dead end. This one had better not be one."

"This one won't be," he said with a laugh. "I promise."

"It'd better not be, Captain ADD. We don't have a lot more time until we're spotted."

* * *

Jinx had been enjoying what little of the night that she could. The day's events hadn't really allowed her to, so she was trying to pry out as much enjoyment out of an otherwise awful day as she could.

Then it rained. But that was okay, since it was still a warm summer evening in spite of things.

Then Robin showed up. So much for any kind of relief from the storm. He had that way about him. She'd remembered how he single-handedly turned the tide in battle the first time she'd fought against him as a member of the H.I.V.E. He was able to turn four very powerful, yet leaderless heroes into a disciplined fighting force in a very short time.

"So, how long were you intending to let this go on?" Robin asked.

"He doesn't look like he's hurting anyone right now," JInx said, gesturing toward the diner.

"That's not the point. What about her?" he asked, gesturing to Raven in the window. To his surprise, she almost looked like she'd smiled for a second. "This could really hurt her."

"How?" Argent challenged him. "He's not hurting anyone right now. Besides, _he_ didn't ignore her call," she said pointedly.

"We had to change the security programs. We didn't know she'd be early."

"Glad you were thinking ahead," Jinx said.

Robin just scowled at her.

In fact," she said, "he's been a lot bolder than usual. He got downright aggressive with Mumbo."

"That's not very comforting."

"But he's not acting threatening. Not to her."

"No, he's not," he said. "But we know what's going to happen very soon."

"So you know then," Argent inferred.

Robin nodded solemnly. "His DNA is breaking down. He'll be dead in no more than fourty-eight hours."

* * *

Kid Flash felt like he had to wait an eternity for Speedy to show up. In reality, it was only about forty-five seconds, but it seemed to take so much longer that three times he'd gone to the end of the hallway just to see if something had happened.

Just when he was about to go a fourth time, Speedy finally showed up, panting heavily, with a few arrows noticeably missing from his quiver. He stumbled through the doorway and leaned on a wall.

"You all right?" Kid Flash whispered.

"Yeah. Why didn't you tell me there were guards on the other side of the door?"

"There weren't!" he insisted. "Well, there weren't any when I went by."

"You went by three times before you went in here!" Speedy said, struggling to keep the conversation low. "How did you not see them at all?" After staring at Kid Flash for reasons he could only guess at, he said, "Forget it." He looked back at the door. "So this is it, huh?"

He pointed to the sign indicating the room. "Unless there's another room on the other side of the building for cryogenically freezing prisoners, which, in my opinion, would be an incredible waste of taxpayer-"

"A 'yes' will suffice," Speedy interrupted.

"So, Kid Flash said. "How many guards were there?"

"Six."

"Really?" he said, unable to conceal his surprise. "It only looks like you used three arrows."

"They have smoke bombs on the ends," Speedy said, smiling at his own inventiveness.

"Nice."

Speedy walked to the door, giving it a thorough inspection. "It looks like it takes a five-digit code for entry."

"And here I thought things were going to be tough."

Speedy raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Can you phase through this?"

"I wasn't planning on that," Kid Flash said, walking to the panel, cracking his knuckles. "I'm gonna break the code."

* * *

The rain wasn't getting any heavier, but it certainly was making the three of them wetter. Jinx felt like her weight had tripled under her clothes, and Argent, as much as she tried to hide it, looked absolutely miserable, either because of the weather, the news, or both.

"So, is there nothing we can do?" Jinx asked Robin helplessly.

"We're working on it now."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she said incredulously.

"Look," he said, trying to clarify himself. "I have Kid Flash and Speedy infiltrating the prison Beast Boy visited as we speak. I've also asked Aqualad to find my contact in Gotham so I can find out the source of this." He hesitated, as though he was afraid to continue. "And, of course, this is assuming that _that_," he said, pointing to Beast Boy in the window, "really is Beast Boy."

Jinx stood flat-footed, not knowing what to say.

Argent saved her the trouble. "Care to explain that?"

Robin stiffened his back, as if he'd fully expected that exact exchange. "This is all happening way too fast. We've suspected that his DNA might destabilize once before, but that turned out to be a chemical accident. This, this is a little too convenient."

"Okay," Argent said patiently. "Where are you going with this?"

Robin shook his head. "I don't know. But everything about this feels wrong."

"You got that right," Jinx said, articulating all of their feelings.

"That doesn't mean that I'm wrong, though. I've been taught to listen to my instincts, to smell a rat when I see one. And this stinks to the core. Either someone's done something with Beast Boy, or they did something to kill him. Either way, someone did something to him," Robin said, rising. "And I intend to find out. And when I do, I'm going to make them pay."

"He's right," Argent said. "Something really doesn't seem right here."

Robin pointed to the diner. "We need to talk to them." He looked at Argent. "You said he was more aggressive? How?"

Argent looked down as she pondered that, flecking some rain onto her chest. "He flew in at breakneck speed and took Mumbo's wand from him."

Robin looked a little disappointed, as thought he was hoping for something more dramatic.

She looked at Jinx. "What about the way he acted around her?"

They looked back at Robin, who looked a little curious. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Jinx started. "He seemed protective of her. I mean, _really_ protective," she said clinching both fists for emphasis. "I'd never seen him act that decisively."

"Well, that might be something," he reluctantly admitted. "But it still doesn't really leave us with a lot."

"Actually," Argent said. "Seeing as how he's called 'Beast Boy', I found it interesting that the one girl he's always trying to impress is the one who most inspires his protective nature."

"He's done it before with her," Robin said. "But he's done it for all of us."

"Yes," Argent said. "But not usually with quite the anger with which he defended her tonight. It really resembled the way an animal would be protective of its mate."

Jinx choked on something, then realized there was nothing to choke on. "A mate?" she asked.

"You have to admit, it makes sense, especially with the way he talked to her afterwards," Argent said.

"What do you mean?" Robin asked.

"Well," Jinx said reluctantly. "He got pretty flirty with Raven after the fight. He didn't outright hit on her, but, he was definitely turning on the charm."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "But you're both up here." He pointed to the street below. "They're down there. How could you tell how he was talking to Raven?"

Jinx shared a look with Argent. They both smiled wryly. "Boys," Argent said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Robin asked.

"It means that female intuition can go a lot further than those detective skills of yours," Jinx said. "Especially then it comes to the body language of a boy talking to a girl."

"That still leaves a lot of ground to cover," Robin said. "And we don't have a lot of time."

"We do have a place to start from," Jinx said. "Where's your girlfriend and Cyborg?"

Robin flinched briefly, but kept in stride, a sign that he had a pretty strong grasp of the gravity of the situation. "They're back at the Tower. Cyborg's going over the data we have on Beast Boy, and Starfire's getting the Tower ready in the event of an emergency."

"What kind of emergency?" Jinx asked.

"Any," he said grimly. They all knew what that meant. Not everyone would necessarily return to the Tower alive.

"Looks like Cyborg's got his hands full," Jinx said, recalling her time working with him at the H.I.V.E., before she knew he was a spy.

"We gave him a battery of tests, but it doesn't look like we got everything."

"Why didn't you just tell Beast Boy the truth?" Argent asked.

"If it were just Beast Boy, I wouldn't have hesitated." Robin sighed. "But it's not just about him now. Now it's Raven. And it's Argent. And Jinx," he said pointing to them. "We don't know what's causing this, so we don't know how he'll react to the news. This could put us all in danger. Animal instinct can be a dangerous thing."

They were all silent for a few seconds. Then Robin spoke up. "We need to talk to them."

Jinx had asked herself many times just why it was that she decided to leave the Hive Five for the Teen Titans. Yes, Kid Flash treated her well, and he made her feel like she could do more than just cause destruction. But she also had come to realize that being a Teen Titan meant something. It meant you were a very special kind of person.  
Robin was showing himself to be just one of them. So was Kid Flash. And soon, she hoped, so would Jinx.

* * *

Beast Boy could not remember the last time he'd had this much fun with anyone, let alone a girl. When he thought about it, he really couldn't think of a time since his only date with Terra.

It was a night he would never remember, no matter how hard he tried. She had betrayed him and the rest of the Teen Titans to Slade, and they were all nearly killed. But odd as it seemed to say, or even think, it was the happiest night of his life until then.

It was the only time he'd ever truly felt like he was really being himself with a girl. That had probed to be a very tricky and dangerous tightrope that he didn't like to walk with girls, but tonight he felt as though he could run across it with her.

They'd gone to All-Night-Mikey's, a diner which, not surprisingly, stayed open 24 hours. Right now, the business was pretty slow, and both Raven and Beast Boy were pretty sure that they were the only customers who were still sober, as most of them seemed to be trying to sober themselves up after all night binges or wild parties to get ready for the next day's work.

In spite of the seeming despair of the hazards of working such a shift, they had good help from the waitress, a plump, pleasant 40-ish woman with rosy cheeks named Helen. The kind of person everyone thought was someone's aunt.

When the Gordanians attacked the city and Starfire came to Earth for the first time, the Teen Titans saved the place before they'd even formed a team.

Its owner, a big guy, in every sense of the word, named Mikey, decided to devote a lot of attention to displaying his gratitude for the salvation of his business. All-Night Mikey's had become a bit of a tourist attraction, and Mikey covered every available inch of wall space in the diner to pictures and news clippings of the exploits of the Titans.

Raven insisted that it was so that no one would notice the lack of a board of health license, but even she had to drop the snark, if only momentarily, when she saw the Raven Menu. Lots of blue and herbal tea. And, of course, waffles.

All of the Titans had menus devoted to them, and Raven got her revenge by pointing the absurdity of the all soy and tofu Beast Boy Menu.

"So," Raven asked, a sly teasing smile on her face. "Why wear the mask? Why bother?"

He had to think about that one. He could remember when that made sense, but not why. "I dunno. It made sense at the time."

"Why?" she asked flatly.

"Everyone wants to be able to hide themselves when they become a hero. Even if their secret identity is green." He looked at her. "Don't you want to just be yourself sometimes without people looking at you?"

Raven looked back toward their table sheepishly. "Oh, well I suppose so."

"That's okay though. Seeing those old pictures of me from back then are just embarrassing. I mean, my hair was just awful back then!"

She let out a muffled giggle.

He couldn't believe it. "Hey! You laughed at my joke!"

Raven scowled and looked away. "I did not!"

"Booin' it doesn't make it less true!" he taunted.

"Shut up," she said, trying to be ominous in her tone, but unable to hide the redness in face.

"Aww, did I embarrass you?" he teased.

"Look," she said, looking him in the eyes. "We're having a good time. Don't ruin it."

"Don't lie," he said, trying to lay on the charm. "You know you're having fun."

"Whether I'm having fun shouldn't be your concern," she said. "Whether I send you into another dimension should."

"I've been there, and I kinda liked it."

"Don't push it," she scowled. Was she always this much fun to tease?

"So," he said, finally taking that hint that he just might indeed be annoying her. "How were the kids?"

"They're all right," she said, a little relieved and surprised that he'd changed the subject. "They don't fight, and Melvin even joined me in meditation once."

Beast Boy laughed.

"What's so funny about that?"

"I think it's great."

"What's that?" she asked.

"That you, of all people, could be good with kids."

"Why is that so strange?" she asked, acting a little offended.

"Well, I've always loved kids, and Starfire, she sure looks like she could get along with them, but you looked like you'd just sit there and say, 'there, there,' if one of them started crying."

"Yeah," she said, laughing nervously and looking away. "Imagine that."

Beast Boy pointed at her. "You DID, didn't you?"

She nodded sheepishly. She was really being cute tonight.

"That's awesome!"

Raven scowled at him. "Are you making fun of me?"

He shook his head. "No! No! Not at all! I just think it's great. Whenever I see or hear from the Juniors, they're always asking about you."

Raven sat still, blinking at him.

"They're crazy about you," Beast Boy said. "I just think it's great that you could be such a natural with them, since you'd never done it before."

Raven looked down at her half-eaten pie, blushing deeply. "Well," she said. "It was no thanks to you. Even they didn't think your jokes were funny."

Beast Boy cracked up laughing. "You mean you tried my jokes?"

Raven slapped her face, groaning in obvious regret the concession that comment made.

Before Beast Boy could respond, he heard the bell to the front door of the diner ring. He always turned to see who the new customers were. After all, he never knew when it might be a cute fangirl.

It wasn't though. It was Argent, Jinx, and Robin. They were soaking wet, and something looked very, very wrong.

* * *

Kid Flash had been working at the combination on the code to get into the cryogenic chamber for hours. In reality, it had only been about three minutes, but it felt like so much longer.

He could really have gone for a dozen cheeseburgers right about then. While it felt like there was no end to the combinations of numbers that could compose the code, there was in fact merely a finite number. There were only so many combinations that it could take.

Finally, after five and a half hours, or five minutes, Kid Flash hit the magic number. The red light next "Access Denied" gave way to the green light, as the seal depressurized.

"Jackpot!" he said triumphantly.

Clearly impressed, but not wanting to concede that he was, Speedy said, "How'd you do that?"

"But that had to take thousands of combinations. That was only a few minutes."

"Fastest Titan alive," Kid Flash boasted, blowing on his right index finger as if it were a gun barrel.

Finally ready to get down to business, Speedy pulled the chamber door, immediately flooding the both of them with a chill of air mixed with supercooled fluids.

The room was beyond frigid, filled with mist and coolants. Inside, a large number of clear glass cells, maybe as many as sixty, sat in the room.

"Yeesh!" Speedy said. "How does anyone work here?"

"They probably wear those," Kid Flash said, pointing to the thermal bodysuits on the far wall.

Annoyed at having been shown up, but unable to really respond, Speedy shrugged. "So," he said. "What are we looking for?"

"Anything weird," Kid Flash said, running along each cell as fast as he could, given the poor traction on the floor.

"Wow. That's useful," Speedy said.

Kid Flash wondered what good any of this was doing. He'd already gone through a third of the cells, and nothing was wrong.

"That directive needs some more vague in it," Speedy continued, unaware of how elongated his comment had become to.

Before Speedy could say more, Kid Flash finally came across some problems. And these were indeed problems.

"Hel-lo!" he said.

"What is it?" Speedy asked.

"Take a look."

It took a few seconds for Speedy to catch up with him, but when he did, he knew what they didn't know they were trying to find.

Several empty cells. "Adonis. Madame Rouge. "Professor Chang," Kid Flash read off the cell labels.

"What the-" Speedy said, looking down in Madame Rouge's cell.

Kid Flash looked down. At the bottom, on the floor in a fetal position, a person was frozen in her place.

"Oh, no," Speedy said, recognizing the person."

All of the prisoners in this section of the prison were in a frozen state, but this one was caked over to a far greater extent. "Who is it?"

"Look," he said, pointing to some coloration on the floor. "It's Beast Boy."


	5. Chapter 4

Raven was having one weird day. That was putting it mildly. From the start, everything just seemed odd. She detoured coming home, then had to leave early, and then everyone ignored her when she needed help.

Well, almost everyone. The one person who had been here the whole evening was Beast Boy. And he might have been the weirdest thing about this night. He was acting, well, normal, or as normal as Beast Boy ever overabundance of horrible jokes, he wasn't devoting all of his energy to impressing her or anyone else, no real weirdness. That was weird enough. He even made her laugh once.

He was Beast Boy, yes. But he also was acting as though something had happened. She could sense it, too. As though something in him was dying to get out, and it was finally finding expression.  
She found it interesting that quite a bit of it had been directed to her. Beast Boy had always had a bit of an odd friendship with Raven, but tonight he seemed like he was hinting at more than that.

She didn't know what to think about that.  
Raven was not the kind of person who would turn heads the way Starfire would. She didn't really want to, anyway. The less people could see of her, the less they could know about her. And the less everyone knew about her, the better off everyone would be.  
At the same time, it did feel nice to think that someone might just look at her and like what he saw. Someone who knew what she was, and still liked her for it. Maybe someone who didn't think creepy was all that bad.

Besides, he seemed to like being around her. And that felt good.

Not much else did at this moment, though. Beast Boy seemed to try to give Raven as much of a nice evening as he could, given the circumstances. Then Robin showed up, along with Argent, and one of Raven's toughest former opponents, Jinx.

A black cloud that only she could see was dwelling over all of them. They kept their distance, as Robin tried to approach Beast Boy.

"Beast Boy, we need to talk."

"What? What did I do?"

"What?" Robin said, confused.

Raven could sense something being set off internally with Beast Boy. Somehow, he had been dreading the very conversation he was in, as though it had been predetermined. He backed up, stumbling over the chair he'd just been sitting in. "What's wrong, Beast Boy?" Raven said, trying to keep all sides from escalating.

Beast Boy turned to her, a look of abject horror on his face. "I don't know. But he doesn't trust me anymore." She looked back at the three Titans who, if they were being at all honest, had just come to talk. "I need to get out of here!"

With that, Beast Boy morphed into a rabbit and hopped past all of them, who were practically flat-footed by comparison. He got to the door, returned to his human form to leave, and turned into a dog to run down the street.

Raven looked back the three. "Okay, what did I miss?"

* * *

Kid Flash loved science. Especially forensic science. Something about watching a show where they showed just how the crime occurred utterly fascinated him. Maybe it was because so many of those shows would use that ultra slow-motion "bullet time" perspective that he could understand so easily. Either way, it was just fun.  
He was giving his scientific muscles a workout trying to figure out how to deactivate the cryogenic cell he was looking at. The cell had been labeled for Madame Rouge, but this was not her. Somehow, Beast Boy had been subdued and thrown in her place. Judging from the looks of cell, whoever did this didn't like the little green guy too much. He'd apparently been beaten senseless, and they used as much of the freezing chemicals on him as they could.

"So, Speedy said, looking at Beast Boy. Is he alive?"

"It depends on what you mean by 'alive'," he said as he continued inspecting the control panel next to the cell.  
Speedy raised eyebrow. "I didn't know that was a trick question."

"Well, when you're dealing with cryogenics it is." He pointed to the vent in the ceiling. "When those chemicals come out of there and hit you, you're still alive."

"I remember that," he said, shivering at the thought of his being frozen.

"Yes, well, when you freeze, you're not dead, but you're not really alive either." He pointed to Beast Boy. "Look a him. He doesn't have a heartbeat. He doesn't have a pulse. And there's no brain activity."

"That sounds like he's dead," Speedy said. "Except that there's no catastrophic tissue damage, which means that if we can shut this thing down and deactivate it, we'll have our very own Beast Boy on a stick!"

Speedy pointed down at the green-ish Titan in the cell. "Even if he's been caked over like that?"

Kid Flash shook his head. "I don't think that'll be too much of a problem. Whoever did that just did it because they really hate him. It had to Madame Rouge, judging from the looks of him."

"But couldn't that much be toxic?"

"No. Once it makes contact with you, you're in a state of hibernation. That's not nearly enough to kill you."  
Finally, he was starting get the hang of the controls.

"How do you know all this?" Speedy asked.

"I've studied a lot of Boyle's work." he said.

"Who?' Speedy asked.

"Ferris Boyle. CEO of GothCorp. His company made all these chambers." Kid Flash looked around for a moment. "Makes me wonder how the Brotherhood was able to get all the chambers they had."

Speedy scratched his head. "Yeah. That is a good question."

"Then again, Boyle's been suspected in doing some dirty deeds, and we all know that Chang knows all the dirty dealers there are." He pressed in the final combination of keys on the console. "There. That should do it."

With an expansive whoosh, the glass chamber filled with gasses and steam, and the glass lifted, leaving only Beast Boy lying on the floor, looking soaked and beaten, but still very much alive.  
He rolled over on the ground, coughing and gasping for air. His face had almost no color left in it, and he couldn't seem to stop shivering. Icicles were still hanging from flecks of his hair. "Beast Boy?" Kid Flash said.

"You all right, man?" Speedy asked.

"Man. That was nasty," Beast Boy said, shimmying the water off him the way a dog might. "What happened?"

Speedy helped him to his feet as Kid Flash pointed at the empty cells. "I think someone set a trap for you."

Beast Boy stared for a few seconds at the cells, taking everything in. His face turned even paler than it had been. He looked Kid Flash in the face. "Where are the rest of the Titans?"  
"They're all over the city."

"No," Beast Boy said, horrified.

"What?" Speedy said. "We're only looking for three of them."

"Madame Rouge can cause enough trouble for an entire army. You can NEVER underestimate her!" "Okay, point taken," Kid Flash said, a little surprised by his intensity.

"What about Raven? Robin? Starfire? Cyborg? Where are they?"

"Well, Kid Flash said. "Cyborg and Starfire are at Titans Tower." He sighed. "Robin and Raven are...talking to you."

Beast Boy looked at Kid Flash the way a cow might look at an oncoming train. "WHAT?"

Kid Flash shared a look with Speedy. "We'd better get out of here. This story's too long to tell here."

"Okay," Beast Boy said. "But I gotta hear this."

* * *

Raven wasn't sure where Beast Boy was going, but there wasn't much question where he was. Even after midnight, a green dog was hard to miss. Flying about thirty feet off the ground, she watched him as he scurried down the street. She tried to stay directly out of his range of vision, but she knew full well that if he wanted to see her there, he could.

As if she were flying in formation, Argent kept pace about fifty feet to Raven's left, looking down at Robin on the street, who was speeding after the green dog on the R-Cycle.

"Okay," she said through her communicator. "Just what's going on here?"

"I don't know what he's running from," Robin said. "We just came to talk."

"Okay," she said, not liking where this was going. "Talk about what?"

"Has he been acting a little, I don't know, strangely tonight?"

That would be putting it mildly. "There was something different, but I'm not sure what it was."

"What was he doing?" Robin asked.

Raven sighed herself. Why did he have to pry like that? "He seemed a little...intense, I guess."

"He sure did when he was talking to you," a voice piped in.

Raven recognized it immediately. "Is that Jinx?" She looked down and finally noticed that Robin had a pink-haired rider on the back of the R-Cycle. Jinx turned her head back toward Raven and waved.

"Sorry," Jinx said. "But I overheard."

"So I see," Raven said, biting her irritation. Talk about your worst-case scenarios. She didn't really know what she thought about Beast Boy before today, and this just made things that much more complicated. The one thing she didn't want was a whole lot of people watching what they saw as a budding romance with the giddy enthusiasm of sports fans.

"Yes well, he hasn't just been acting weird around you," Robin said. "It's been everyone. It's as if something's hyper-stimulated his senses."

"Hmm," Argent said. "That would seem consistent."

"Yeah, it would," Jinx said. Suddenly they sounded like twins.

"What would?" Raven asked, demanding to be allowed into what seemed to be an increasingly exclusive conversation.

"But why did he run?" Jinx asked.

"Seems like a fight-or-flight reflex," Argent replied.

"Okay," Raven said, intent on controlling the gush of words. "Something's going on here. Something bad. I can sense it. What is it?"

Beast Boy took a left-hand turn at an intersection, leaving all three silent as they passed through. "What is it?" Raven repeated, this time much more angrily.

"Raven," Robin said somberly. "Beast Boy is dying."

Raven felt jolted. It was as if she'd stepped on the third rail of a subway. For a second or two, she felt completely numb. Before she realized it, she began to fall from the sky.  
"What?" she managed to get out in a whisper..

"His DNA's breaking down," Robin said.

"How?"

"We don't know."

Raven felt as though one of the pillars in her life had just fallen, threatening to shatter the stability to which she so tightly clung. Whatever it was that Beast Boy did mean to her, the thought of losing him absolutely devastated her. "How long does he have?" she asked.

"Two days, if he's really lucky."

That seemed to jolt her back to her senses. "How could it be happening this fast? There wasn't any indication of problems when we went to Tokyo."

"None of this makes sense," Robin said. "We need to figure out how this happened, but if he won't talk to us, there's nothing we can do."

Raven flew silently for a moment, closing her eyes to concentrate. She reached out with her mind and soul, trying to make contact with Beast Boy, or at least be able to sense his disposition.  
He immediately rebuffed her. Something very primal was triggered, filling Beast Boy with the fear that could only be compared to that of a small animal trying to evade a predator. Convincing him that she or any of the other Titans were not threats would be more than difficult. It would be downright impossible if his animal instinct could not be overridden. It certainly couldn't be if he remained in an animal form.

"I can't contact him," Raven said helplessly as they watched him take a right turn at an intersection.

"If we don't do something soon," Robin said, "there won't be anything left to contact."

* * *

Madame Rouge was used to having to used hideouts. What she wasn't used to was having to share space with these people. They were in what looked like either a building receiving a badly needed renovation, or a construction zone. She really couldn't tell which, but the fact that there did seem to be equipment around for building things, and some rooms in the interior were almost fully furnished led her to believe that it was a renovation.

She sat in a chair against the wall of what looked like a large laboratory, or what was or would be one. Professor Chang had Adonis strapped down to an extremely large gurney, welding a new suit of armor onto him.

"So, Doc, this gonna make me even more ripped?" Adonis said, his machismo dripping with every word. Could there have been a person alive with bigger inadequacy issues?

Rouge took some comfort in the fact that if either of her two "partners" were to suffer a terrible fate, she would require little grieving time to get over the loss of them.

Chang continued to work on his living experiment. He was, quite simply, disgusting. His personality was as repulsive as his face. He had been in the employ of at least a dozen governments hostile to the United States. A few of them were under investigation for crimes against humanity, which Chang no doubt contributed to.

He also was very skilled in technological and biological experimentation that more savory scientists would have found revolting, so in that regard his skills were necessary.

For now.

Adonis groaned and winced at the work being done on his body in a pathetic attempt to show his manliness. Rouge tried to ignore him, but only managed to do so in the way one might ignore a dog that couldn't stop trying to mate with the household furniture. With nothing else to do other than wait, she walked over to Chang and Adonis, pretending to be interested in the progress of the power suit's completion.

"So," she asked Chang. "How much longer?"

Chang turned to face her. She tried to hide her disgust at his sight. "We're almost done. In five minutes, he'll be ready for action."

"Awesome," Adonis said. "Now I"ll be stronger than ever."

"Will he the suit function properly?" she asked Chang.

"Oh, yes," he nodded enthusiastically. "All the specs you wanted have been fully integrated into his system."

"Excellent, she nodded. "And the green one? He will be here soon?"

"Oh, yes. He will be. The process left much of his animal instincts closer to the surface. His brain will act as a homing signal, leading the rest of them straight to us."

"Because, the accelerated aging process left his brain that way."

"So he's defective," she inferred.

"Oh no," he said. "Not at all." He thought a moment. "Well, not really. He'll be dead in a day or so."

"We don't need him to live long. Is he less intelligent?"

"No. He has the same level of intelligence as his model. The only difference is, his primitive side is more accessible." He patted Adonis on the shoulder. "That's why our friend here needed the upgrade."

"He'll be more dangerous," she said.

"To friend and foe, possibly."

"But that won't last long, either."

"Oh?"

"After a certain point, his ability to shape change will be compromised," Chang said. "It will leave him powerless, and ready for our research."

"It is his DNA that we need?"

"Yes."

"Nothing more?" she asked.

"That's correct. Blood samples, brain tissue. That sort of thing."

Rouge let a slight grin cover her face. "Good. I wouldn't want us to hold back on our guests."

"Is that where I come in?" Adonis piped in.

"Yes," Rouge nodded. "That is where you will destroy the Teen Titans."

"Sweet." He looked at Rouge. "If I do this, I want something, though."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what would that be?"

"I want the girl."

She didn't like what she knew that meant. "The girl?"

"Yeah," he said as Chang finished working on the suit. "I want the feisty one."

Rouge shivered at the disgusting implications of his request. She had known about his lecherous interest in the demoness before. In fact, his attack on her was most responsible for the Brain's discovery of the changeling as the most powerful member of the hated Doom Patrol. He had long suspected that Beast Boy was the true strong man and his transformation in his fight against Adonis confirmed that.

Adonis was nothing if not consistent in his interests. No doubt he wanted to make good on what he had tried to do before.

There was much to be learned from the green one. The Brain seemed to take some interest in him, but had never specified what or why. Rouge wished she had more reliable allies with which to work on this. Preferably people who didn't have such intentions at heart. However, these were desperate times, and there was no telling it Adonis would live to collect on his request.

"As you wish."


End file.
